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Fiction
Feb 2007 |
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Dear all,
The “January 2007 rentrée littéraire” provides a vivid image of the dynamism and variety of French literature. Here is a selection of the most striking books we would like to share with you.
First of all, two novels with a historic background. In a short but intense autobiography entitled Manèges, petite histoire argentine, Laura Alcoba describes a tragic episode from her childhood in Argentina. The military coup of 1976, and the violent repression and assassinations that followed it are seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old child, living in hiding with her mother in a state of constant fear. Gisèle Pineau’s last book, Mes quatre femmes is also set in foreign lands. The author’s memory summons four West-Indian female members of her family. Each in turn retraces the story of her life, returning to the sufferings caused by man and history alike, as well as the joys, both great and small, experienced. Each in her own way embodies part of Guadeloupe's history over the past two centuries. Gisèle Pineau agreed to answer our questions – see the “focus on” section on the homepage.
Yves Simon casts an eye back over the past with Je voudrais tant revenir. Here he presents a young author struggling for inspiration until the great writer Karl Berline, also the father of his deceased friend, asks to see him again. This meeting between the two men engenders a book about the life of one, told in the words of the other.
Like Yves Simon, two other chosen authors are characterized by their strongly individual and involved voice. Arnaud Cathrine gives us The Disappearance of Richard Taylor, a subtle novel that opens in the year that the protagonist, Richard Taylor, disappears. In order to truly capture this fugitive character, Arnaud Cathrine cleverly avoids allowing him to speak, and portrays his flight through the eyes of five women, each of whom is close to him in different ways and has her own personal interpretation of his disappearance. In the area of non-fiction, Philippe Forest offers us a sober and moving work of sharp intellect in All children except one. Taking as a starting point the ordeal that he has endured (the death of his three year-old daughter ten years ago), Forest contemplates what “the illness and death of a child can mean in today's world”.
Lighter in tone, but also thoughtful, Raphaël Majan gives us an enormously enjoyable whodunnit embellished with meaty dialogue. With this new instalment of Liberty Wallance’s adventures, Chair aux enchères (Skin for sale) parodies the traditional crime novel and subverts the genre. Thought-provoking as well as entertaining, Raphaël Majan raises questions about taking crime prevention too far and assigning guilt regardless of certain basic rules of democratic justice.
We do hope that you will enjoy this selection as much as we have, and hope to discuss your views soon.
With best wishes,
Hervé Ferrage, Sophie Moreau and Carla Calimani.